Zug der Erinnerung
Ein Projekt deutscher Bürgerinitiativen
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The German "Reichsbahn" railroad took in millions in receipts for mass deportations to Nazi death camps. For the first time, the amount of these receipts has been calculated and published in an expertise. Even though the Federal Republic of Germany is the legal heir of these "Reichsbahn" receipts, Berlin has never commissioned the computation of the amount of the extorted transportation fees nor the damages caused by deportation.
The Expertise will be made available to the international press in the presence of surviving victims of the "Reichsbahn":
Friday, November 6, at 11.00
In Berlin-Moabit, Putlitzbrücke / Memorial for the Deported
According to this expertise, the state-owned "Reichsbahn" charged for transport to Auschwitz and the other death camps 2 Pfennige (approx. 12 Cents) per person, per kilometer. For a death transport from Berlin (1,033 deportees to the Ghetto Lodz), the "Reichsbahn" received in current values approx. 63 thousand Euros, for a mass deportation from Hamburg (1,004 deportees to Minsk), the "Reichsbahn" was paid approx 190 thousand Euros in current values. The "Reichsbahn" had the victims to pay the costs of their trips.
As the expertise has ascertained, even the transports to the gas chambers for those with "congenital illnesses" (128 thousand victims) were calculated at these usual prices. This comes to a sum of more than four million Euros in "Reichsbahn" receipts. Deportation by rail in Poland, according to the expertise, comes to a sum of double-digit millions. Several thousand children and youth were among those abducted. The "Reichsbahn" also charged high rates for the smuggling of concentration camp inmates in boxcars from one camp to another.
The German ministries for Finance and for Transportation are indebted for the total amount of receipts calculated by the expertise at current values.
Contact to the press: 02297-1649 / Cell: 0171-190-5050
On its internet channel "Bahn TV," the German Bahn AG railroad company is broadcasting sequences of Nazi propaganda on the German railroad system, while the mass deportations to the death camps by the "German Reichsbahn" are passed over in silence. This was declared by the "Train of Commemoration" Association, presenting a "Bahn TV" channel broadcast as evidence. In this program a documentary film is shown that, according to the moderator, was produced "with a great love for historical detail".
The documentation "Zeugnisse der Zeit" (Testimony of the Time) covers 150 years of German railroad history. Disregarding the context, the period of the Nazi dictatorship and the period after 1936 are depicted as periods when the German economy had an "unexpected upswing," the living standard rose "and therefore also the desire to travel". As illustration, the film shows clearly identifiable Nazi propaganda sequences of overcrowded vacation trains. The Nazi scenes are accompanied by lively military march music giving the impression of an enjoyable normalcy. By this time, the ostracism of German Jews was in full swing. In a “night and fog” operation in 1938, thousands of Poles were deported "to the east" with the “Reichsbahn”.
Without interruption or mention of the Reichsbahn's complicity in the mass murder, the "Bahn TV" program complains of the destruction of German cities and railway lines showing scenes from the post-war period. The "Bahn TV" program does not mention the "Reichsbahn's" transports into the death camps nor those of the concentration camps' construction brigades, who lost their lives on the tracks of the "Reichsbahn". Under contract from the Reich Security Main Office and other Nazi administrations, the "Reichsbahn" transported over 3 million people to Auschwitz and other death camps. The quote from the "Bahn TV" program can be found on the Internet: http://zug-der-erinnerung.eu/index.html
The "Bahn TV" program is being shown in a recently opened exhibit in the "Train of Commemoration". The exhibit presents other documents on the "Reichsbahn's" heir's views of history. It shows how the "Deutsche Bundesbahn" sought to prevent a public representation of the Nazi mass deportations to death camps. In the DB directorate’s internal correspondence one reads, it cannot be permitted "that the railroad's role in the persecution of Jews during the Third Reich becomes the theme" of an exhibit on the history of the railroad. When historians sought to obtain records concerning the Reichsbahn's deportations, the DB answered "that it is neither within its duties nor its possibilities to carry out competent research in this direction." The archives in the possession of the "Reichsbahn's" successor still contain photo albums and other pieces of evidence pointing to likely suspects.
The Deutsche Bahn AG has collected exorbitant fees for the "Train of Commemoration's" exhibits. So far the citizen's initiative has had to pay 110,000 Euros for the use of tracks and stopovers in 70 stations. The directorate of the Bahn AG has refused to make a contribution to the "Train of Commemoration."
Contact: 0049-171-190 5050
The German government parties- the Christian Democrats (CDU) and Christian Social Union (CSU) together with the Social Democrats(SPD) turned down all requests for support of "The Train of Remembrance". This caused the request to the parliamentary budget committee by MP Katrin Goering-Eckardt to fail. Mrs. Goering-Eckardt, Vice President of the German Parliament, and member of the Alliance 90 Group/Greens had proposed that the planned journey by the "Train of Remembrance" should be supported from taxpayers' funds on its coming journey through Europe. This suggestion was supported by the Free Democrats (FDP), the Alliance 90/The Greens and the Party of the Left. The government parties voted against. Even a token demand for a few euros' support for the "Train of Remembrance" was denied debate by the government parties.
The veto by the CDU/CSU and SPD stands in stark contradiction to undertakings by numerous representatives of these parties who were previously strong supporters of the "Train of Remembrance" at local and provincial level. In the past several CDU prime ministers were strong supporters of this citizens' initiative. This support left the Federal Chancelry unimpressed. Not a cent was available from the office of the resident Minister of State for Culture and Media (Bernd Neumann - CDU/CSU) to commemorate over 1 million deported children from the countries occupied by Germany.
"The Train of Remembrance", sponsored by the initiative of private citizens, will continue its journey in the coming months. A new route of several thousand kilometres is planned through numerous stations on the West and South West regions of the German rail network. It is also planned to visit stations in neighbouring countries to commemorate deported children and young people from almost all European countries. The number of children and young victims of the Nazis deported to concentration and extermination camps by the "Deutsche Reichsbahn" (German State Railways) is estimated to be 1.5 million.
The exhibition carriages, drawn by a steam engine, included biographies of some of the young victims. In the first journey they were to be seen on seventy railway stations in Germany as well as in Poland and attracted 240,000 visitors. The exhibition, which also identified culprits in the Reich Ministry of Transport and German Railways, is presently being extended.
To give practical support to the last survivors of the child deportations, "The Train of Remembrance" is beginning several projects of practical assistance. In Poland alone, the German authorities carried off over 30,000 children and young people. Several thousand victims from other European countries live in Israel in their extreme old age. As well as having material needs, they are plagued by long-term psychological problems arising from their deportation by the "Reichsbahn" and their experiences in the camps. Sponsorship of the charitable projects will be assumed by local initiatives at the stations to be visited in the next train journey.
As it has been since its beginning in November 2007, "The Train of Remembrance" will be supported overwhelmingly by private subscription. The organisers have previous had to pay nearly 100,000 euro to Deutsche Bahn AG. The company demanded large sums for use of the rail network and for the memorial exhibitions on railway stations. In spite of numerous appeals from prominent people in cultural and political life ( including the Prime Ministers of Saarland and Thuringia), Deutsche Bahn refused either to remit its charges or make a contribution.
The charitable association again appealed to Chairman Mehdorn of the Railway Board to waive the charges for the memorial train. The organisers have also addressed similar appeals to the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Transport which is responsible for the oversight of the Federal Railway.
For the rolling exhibition, exhibiting the biographies of the children from all over Europe, who had been deported by the Nazis, the SNCF is making a spare railroad car available. The promise of aid, at normal rental conditions, spares the initiators financial losses and expenses in the range of 18,000 Euros.
The enlargement of the commemoration for the abducted children is the reason behind the cooperation. Due to the overwhelming sympathy displayed at the deportation train stations (already more than 60,000 visitors), the route has been extended several thousand kilometers. It is scheduled to reach the Auschwitz Memorial on May 8, where youth from over 40 German cities will commemorate the deportees in an international ceremony.
The duplication of the originally planned route led to a technical bottleneck. The exhibition would have had to be interrupted for several weeks. The SNCF's promise to make a rare spare railcar available, permits the continuation of the route to other German train stations.
Among these is the Hamburg Central Station, where local initiators intend to welcome the "Train of Commemoration" in March. It was in this port city that Georges-André Kohn, a deportee from France, at age 13, met his death. He was hanged in the cellar of a school. His biography is among the exhibits in the "Train of Commemoration".
"Your altruistic aid honors the murdered children and is an example of our common values," wrote the citizens' initiatives in their letter of gratitude to the management of the SNCF.
Berlin – Citizens' initiatives in support of the "Train of Commemoration" are now turning to European public opinion, because a "virtual boycott" is obstructing the commemoration of the children and youth, who were deported during the Nazi period. They are calling for protests against the "Deutsche Bahn AG" and the German Ministry of Transportation in Berlin.
Since last November, the citizens initiatives' "Train of Commemoration" – carrying a mobile exhibit of biographies of the missing children from many European nations – has been following the same routes taken by the German deportation trains. Hundreds of thousands were carried over the German rail network to death-camps. The mass-transport was organized by the "Deutsche Reichsbahn." Only few of the deported survived.
More than 40,000 people have already visited the train in German stations, to inform themselves of these Nazi crimes. Some laid flowers for the children from Norway, the Netherlands, Poland or Italy in the narrow exhibition cars. Tens-of-thousands more are awaiting the arrival of the train in nearly all of the German federal states and are preparing local commemorations for the missing children from their hometowns, from France, Belgium or from Greece.
But, according to the appeal, the "Deutsche Bahn AG," Europe's largest rail logistician, is obstructing the commemorations through demands for several tens-of-thousands of Euros. The railroad company's board of directors has refused to accord demands for a waiver of these costs. Even the Ministry of Transport in Berlin has categorically refused to support the "Train of Commemoration," even though the mass-deportation of European children and youth was commissioned by its predecessor (the Reich's Ministry of Transportation).
For the past few weeks, parliamentarians from various parties and numerous German media organs have been protesting against the attempts to halt the "Train of Commemoration" through financial requirements. "It's a shame that the Bahn AG is obstructing this project with its behavior. After all, these deportations were organized by former train managers," said the federal parliamentarian, Ulla Burchhardt of the SPD. Winfried Hermann, who is in the Transportation Committee of the German Parliament for the Greens, calls the behavior of the Bahn management "unbearable." Even the Prime Minister of the federal state of Saarland, Peter Mueller (CDU) criticized the Bahn management. The journal, "Saarbruecker Zeitung" considers the methods of the Bahn AG to be "unscrupulous: to indirectly enrich itself from the fate of the deportees of the German Reichsbahn. A shabby behavior that could not be more humiliating for the survivors."
These interventions have as yet remained without effect.
Because of these obstructions, the initiators of the "Train of Commemoration" are now calling for protests. A complete withdrawal of financial demands is being demanded from the Bahn AG. According to the appeal, the Ministry of Transportation, "is part and parcel of the villainous state heritage" and therefore must "make a decisive contribution" to the "Train of Commemoration." The initiators of the commemoration (www.zug-der-erinnerung.eu) ask that protests from other European nations be addressed to German diplomatic missions.
Zug der Erinnerung e.V.
Committee speaker:
Hans-Ruediger Minow
Press photos on demand
BERLIN – Over the past few weeks, approximately 20,000 visitors have seen the rolling exhibition on Nazi deportations in German train stations. The unusual exhibition in the"Train of Commemoration" – initiated by private German citizens initiatives – is dedicated to the murdered small children and youth from all over Europe.
The exhibition, with the biographies of the missing children, is installed in two wagons and is being pulled by a steam engine over the tracks of the German rail system. Nazi occupation troops abducted more than a million small children and youth, from all over Europe, and transported them to German death camps, over the rails of the former "Deutsche Reichsbahn," that had placed its logistics at the disposal of the mass murderers. Only few survivors returned.
The train is to travel 3000 km through Germany, before reaching the Auschwitz Memorial in Poland. The Deutsche Bahn AG, the biggest European logistician, is not only demanding that the private organizers pay so called track tolls to use its rail network, it is also demanding a high price for the stopovers of the "Train of Commemoration" in German railway stations. The Bahn AG is the successor of the "Reichsbahn".
All together the journey of several months will cost 250,000 Euros, which is why the private citizens initiatives have been seeking donations. The German Ministry for Transport, responsible for the railway system, has refused all financial support "on legal grounds".
On November 8, 2007, the “Train of Commemoration” will start its journey through Germany. This journey will begin at the Frankfurt (State of Hesse) railway station and end at the Auschwitz Memorial (Oswiecim/Poland), where the “Train of Commemoration” is scheduled to commemorate the children murdered by the Nazi regime. The train, pulled by a stream engine and including several wagons of exhibitions, will take the route of the deportations carried out, at the time, by the German Reichsbahn.
Over one million children and youth from all over Europe were transported to extermination camps via the German rail network: Children of Jewish families, children of the Sinti and Roms and of Nazi opponents. The mobile exhibition in the “Train of Commemoration” is, with their biographies, commemorating the victims from Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Italy, Greece, Poland and the Soviet Union. It will also commemorate the aid organized by the allied anti-Nazi forces, such as the transport of children to Great Britain, which saved the lives of approximately 10.000 children and youth.
This nation wide campaign was initiated by private citizens’ committees. With this commemoration they want to inspire others to take a stand against racial hatred, right wing extremism and nationalist megalomania. They had asked Europe’s largest railway company, the German Bahn AG, to support the showing of the exhibition in German train stations, as well as the Ministry of Transport in Berlin, in charge of the German rail network, for practical aid.
The “Train of Commemoration”, beginning on November 8, 2007 in Frankfurt, will travel 3000 km and pass through 20 German train stations. For many children from Europe under occupation, these were the last train stations in their lives.
Point of departure: Frankfurt (Hesse): November 8 – 9 / Darmstadt: Nov. 9 – 13 / Mannheim: Nov. 14 –17 / Karlsruhe: Nov. 18 – 20 / Stuttgart: Nov. 22 – 24
December/January Saarbrücken, Fulda, Goettingen, Hannover, Braunschweig, Gotha, Erfurt, Weimar, Leipzig among others.
Berlin/Oswiecim – German citizens’ committees are planning to commemorate the Nazi deportation of over 12,000 Jewish children with a train relay. In the coming fall, a train will take the route of the deportations that, at the time, had been made by the “Reichsbahn,” visiting the home towns of the missing children. A mobile exhibition, installed in several wagons, will illustrate the fate of the deportees. The organizers hope to particularly incite young people to search for traces of the deported children in their towns. According to current planning, the train will halt at stations in Baden-Wuerttemberg, Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia, Lower Saxony, Thuringia, Saxony-Anhalt and Saxony.
The nation-wide „Train of Commemoration“ Citizens’ Committee is hoping to collect photos, archive material, and oral testimonies concerning the deported children and is planning to bring these to the Auschwitz Memorial at the end of the journey that will take several months to complete. In this nation-wide search for traces, participants coming from all the Federal states, will accompany the train on its last stretch between the border town of Goerlitz and today’s Oswiecim (Auschwitz). The “Train of Commemoration” will reach the Auschwitz Memorial next year. The missing Jewish children and youth came from almost all major cities and rural areas in Germany. Between 1940 and 1944, they were rounded up and taken, usually with their families, to train stations, where they were deported by the “Reichsbahn” to extermination camps. So far, the „Train of Commemoration” Citizens’ Committee has been able to identify 12.089 German children and youth, who, through deportations from all over the “Reich”, were victims of the Nazi “race policy.” Their ordeal has remained nearly unnoticed by the German public. The nationwide train relay, inspiring commemoration, is also a warning against the return of racist hatred, right wing extremism and national megalomania.
The „Train of Commemoration is a sequel to earlier successful German citizens’ initiatives. For two years, and with growing public support, these initiatives had been demanding that an exhibition on the crime of deportation, previously shown at French train stations, would also be shown in train stations also in Germany. Last December, after a number of demonstrations that had been reported on internationally, the Ministry of Transport in Berlin finally agreed to initiate a project for an exhibition of the Bahn AG to be displayed next year.
The „Train of Commemoration”, which already will start in 2007, aims at expanding this commemoration to point to the European dimension of this major crime. According to estimates, over one million children and youth from almost all countries on the continent were transported to their deaths by the “Reichsbahn”. Many of those responsible for the crime, have never been punished.
The „Train of Commemoration” is a citizens’ project, financed by initiatives in numerous German cities. Local groups, grassroots organizations and private donors are sharing the considerable costs. Trade unions, foundations and memorials are, among others, partners in this cooperation.
